Infertility has been a growing condition over the past decades (Bushnik et al., 2012). Studies revealed that 5.4% and 8.5% of Canadian couples experienced fertility issues in 1984 and 1992, respectively (Balakrishnan and Fernando, 1993; Dulberg and Stephens, 1993). In 2009-2010 the percentage of couples affected by infertility increased to 11-15%, which is similar to the prevalence of infertility in other industrialized countries (Bushnik et al., 2012; Boivin et al., 2007; Boivin et al., 2009). Since in vivo treatment of infertility is rarely possible, most infertile couples have to rely on Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) (Burger and Baker, 1987). Corresponding to the growth in infertility, numbers of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatments in Canada increased from ˜25,000 IVF cycles with a live birth rate of 20% (=5,000 births), to ˜35,000 IVF cycles with a live birth rate of 30% (=10,500 births) in the last decade (Yuzpe et al., 2002; Pierson et al., 2011). For each cycle of IVF a couple can expect costs on average of $5,660, limiting Canadian infertility services to middle and high income households (OVO Consulting, 2009).
Sperm selection is required for ART, and the selection may influence both the treatment success rate and offspring health (Schultz and Williams, 2002; Said and Land, 2011). In IVF, an oocyte is incubated with an aliquot of 50,000 sperm from an initial sample with on the order of 100 million sperm (Coughlan and Ledger, 2008). In Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) a single sperm is selected and directly injected into an oocyte (Palermo et al., 1992).
In Canada alone, IVF treatments have been estimated to involve total costs of $437 million in 2002. This constitutes ˜0.42% of the amount spent on health in Canada in that year (Collins, 2002).